Tech & Geeky Goodness

Click here. (You won’t be rick rolled, I promise!) Follow the instructions. Come back here and turn it on.

Can’t stop the signal.

This is hilarious:

Here it is on YouTube. How can you not listen to Cap’n Mal?

Well, it’s actually a five–volume set of books. Even at that, the price is outrageous—upwards of $500 once sales tax is added. But I’m still trying to work a way to acquire it.

Here’s a cool interview with Joss Whedon that ranges from Dr. Horrible to Firefly, Buffy, and other interesting stuff. We are all big Dr. Horrible fans, and it’s good to know the project is progressing, even if glacially.

Bet most of y’all never expected me to channel Imelda Marcos. Truth be told, I’m not—this is the first pair of new shoes I’ve bought in at least five years. And they aren’t pretty. Still, I adore them.

I should have seen this coming—I’ve been pissing and moaning about how technology is destroying food quality, and while that can happen, technology can also improve some things.

But when I saw a cool collection of cards, I knew I’d be posting one of them here today. It was a tough decision, but here’s the winner:

This one, and many others, spotted at FireflyFans.Net.

I’m not sure if whatever cheer you seven gain from my recent slump being so short–lived will offset my returning to a theme that some may find tiresome. Be that as it may; it’s a topic that is only going to be increasingly important unless (or until) the collapse comes.

I’ll put this video on in the library since it has some language those of you with sensitive ears might not wish to hear:

A very special friend has spent the day installing Linux on my new computer, as I have wanted for a long time. It's wonderful. Now just have to install the GPG so I can use my encryption keys, and I'm all set. Just so you all know... Mama finally did it! :)

And it is largely thanks to two wonderful gentlemen: MAL and the Happy Curmudgeon.

Despite driving all over two counties yesterday—and getting a later start than I’d wanted on my day—I got a fair amount accomplished yesterday. I’ve already hinted at the first ...

I think it’s official: my computer is wanting to bow out. Intermittent display problems continue to plague it; and I discovered that GPG did something very weird with the last text I attempted to encrypt. I think I have a fairly recent backup of my home directory on an external device, and most of what I’d lose if I need to use it to recover are bookmarks.

I’m back! The problem with my machine turned out to be an exploded video card, which I fixed myself (with MAL’s help) after the mofos I took my computer to were unbelievably slow about getting it on the bench. It turned out to be a very easy thing, hardware–wise: just plug the new card into the slot and reconnect the monitor. Software–wise, it was a bit more tricky, as nVidia and Linux don’t always get on well, but I think I’ve got those issues behind me as well.

I’ve volunteered to help an international group update its web site. One of the first things I noticed about the site is that it has no character set specified ... and yes, there are problems in getting apostrophes to render properly on some pages, and likely other characters too.

The bulk of the text will be in English, but there will be non-Latin characters used from time to time. I know how to use the numerical codes to generate those, but I’m wondering: is there a character set I should choose that is optimal for rendering mixed-language text? Or am I overthinking this issue?

Thanks in advance for all contributions!